Joanne Rand Releases New CD at Old Creamery – October 23, 2010

OLD CREAMERY – Help North Coast favorite Joanne Rand celebrate the release of her 11th CD, Live with Claudia Paige Saturday, Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. at the Arcata Playhouse (1251 Ninth St.).

Celebrated drummer Claudia Page is the backbeat and frontbeat for Joanne’s fantastic new live album, and Claudia will be drumming with Joanne at this show. Join Joanne Rand, Claudia Page, guitarist Robert Franklin from Shin Bone, and singer Lorenza Simmons from AkaBella for Joanne Rand’s CD release party. Sponsored by KHUM, Radio Without The Rules. Admission is $12 at the door.

Claudia Paige of Druid Sister’s Tea Party was picked in 2007 as one of 25 best female drummers from around the world and featured in Sweden Rock magazine, Drummers Digest and Sister Rock. She has played with such greats as Jerry Garcia, Tito Puente, Ray White of Frank Zappa, and shared bills with Ani DiFranco, BB King and Natalie Merchant, to name only a few.

She hails from Mendocino, has toured nationally for more than 25 years and has been playing since she was 12.

“Her playing is a true force of nature” says Rand, “like a wild river rapids so vast it can be seen from space, or a golden retriever running towards you full tilt; or a wall of happiness tumbling undeniably towards you!”

Writing and playing music since her childhood in the Deep South and touring for 25 years, Rand has led a varied life. She cut her performance teeth playing bluegrass in Alaska, spun musical magic with natives in the heart of the Amazon, immersed herself in the Chicago blues and art scene, haunted folk and classical venues in London.

She spent several years as a remote wilderness homesteader in the Pacific Northwest, composing songs while perched in trees, wheel-barrowing her keyboard over the ridge to tour nationally.

She fully launched her career in the North Bay Area of California in 1990, where she remains revered as one of the region’s finest independent artists, eliciting comments such as: “Legendary… longtime local hero” (North Bay Bohemian 2010). “Nothing short of brilliant.” (Santa Rosa Press Democrat).

During the 1990s, Rand moved to Seattle where she helped to anchor the city’s thriving music scene, collaborating with her brother, Jordan Rand. Her work champions the underdog, grassroots, deep ecology, seeks to heal the human condition and nurture a broader view.

She is now in Arcata, raising her daughter, teaching, composing, touring and launching her next recording.

Claudia Paige

Reviewers rave

“Whatever muse has inspired Joanne Rand has only seemed to have grown stronger with time… No matter who or what inspires Rand’s musical output, at its core is a loving fierceness and sense of oneness with nature that Rand doesn’t hold back on. Not quite folk, not quite rock, whether she wrote the song or not, Rand’s outlook is all her own.” (Eugene Weekly, Sept. 2010)

“Her music is fierce, visionary, incantatory and filled with advocacy for the natural world and sanity in this 21st century. Her voice is a powerful, remarkable, exceptional and unforgettable force of nature.” (Portland, Ore., S.E. Examiner, Sept. 2010)

“Through her songs, Rand traverses love, politics, conservation, spirituality and life with a seasoned-to-perfection voice, that, according to Terry Tempest Williams, ‘Opens the doors of creation’.” (Santa Cruz Weekly, 2010)

“Still fierce, still insightful, still inspired…wild and free for a long time to come.” (Eugene Weekly, 2009).

“A work so layered and complex it’s hard to call it folk music with a straight face. But at the core…Rand’s substantial, grounded songs remain.” (Eugene,OR Register Guard, 2009).